Skip to content

Basics

Creating variables

Create variables by prefixing with var keyword:

var variableName = <value>

Since a value is assigned to the variable in the same line, go infers the datatype automatically. In other cases, you need to specify the data type:

var userName string
var userTickets int

userName = "ponniyinselvan"
userTickets = 800

Similarly, you can create constants using the const keyword:

const constantName = <value>

In certain cases, you may want to override go's default datatypes. In such case, you can instantiate, assign value and still declare the type:

var remainingTickets uint = 50  //switch from default int to uint, to prevent negative values

Short code for creating and assigning vars

Go allows the := short code to create and assign vars:

confName := "go land conf"

Scope of variables (and functions)

In Go, there are 3 levels of scope:

  • local: only available within the a specific block of code - such as for block, if block, a function
  • package: available to all files within the same package
  • global: available across packages. Created with Capitalized first letter. Available after importing the package that has the member defined The best practice is to define the variable as local as possible.
import (...)
var varName datatype = {} //values. Defining pacakge level variables

func main(){

}

Printing

You can print statements to standard output using print functions that are available in the fmt module. This needs to be imported first.

import fmt

fmt.Print("text here")      //prints a single line. No new line at the end.
fmt.Println("text here")    //prints with a new line at the end
fmt.Println("text", varName, "text", varName, "text")   //mixing vars and text
fmt.Printf("text %v text %v", var1, var2)               //Using formated print output

Getting user input

To get an input from user using std input, use fmt.Scan() function. You need to pass a placeholder for the value. For this you use pointers. A pointer in go is another variable that holds the address of a given variable.

var userName string
fmt.Print("Enter your username: ")
fmt.Scan(&userName)  //user input is saved to userName var

Modularization

Functions in go

Functions are defined using func keyword, using the syntax: func <name> {...}. Values are returned using return keyword. In golang, you can return any number of values.

func <funcname> (arg1 datatype1, arg2 datatype2) return_datatype {
    //statemetnts

    return <variable>
}

If returning multiple values, then:

func <funcname> (arg1 datatype1, arg2 datatype2) (returntype1, returntype2){
    //statemnts
    return value1, value2
}

func greetUsers(confName string, remianingTx uint) string{
    return fmt.Printf("Welcome to %v .There are %v tix available", confName, remainingTx)
}

//call the fn
greetUsers("goland conf", 50)

Pass by value vs reference

In Go, functions pass by value. To pass a var by reference do this:

func main(){
    var myVal = make([]map[string]string, 0)
    myVal["keuy"] = "value"

    someFunc(param1, param3, &myVal)    // passes address of myVal
}

func someFunc(param1 type, param2 type, param3 *[]map[string]string){
    //gets pointer to myVal
}

Packages in Go

Go apps can be organized using packages. A package is a collection of go files. The first line in a go file is usually the package <pkgname> which indicates which package the file belongs to. Files in the same package can share functions, package level variables etc without having to import the same package.

//main.go file
package main
import ()
//statements


//common.go file
package main
//statements

Both main.go and common.go are now part of the main package.

Multiple packages

Larger applications often have multiple packages to organize code. By convention, each package has its own folder within the app's root folder as shown in Quickstart. To use code or variables from a different package, you need to import the package. However, for go to find the local, user-defined package, you need to import it by prefixing package with module name defined in go.mod file.

Further, for go to find members from a different package, that package needs to be of global scope, for which it should it start with a Capital letter. This allows go to "export" that member to global scope. If you notice, the functions you use from even std packages such as fmt start with capitals, for instance fmt.Println().

//go.mod file
module booking-app

// helper/helper.go file -- helper package
package helper
import "fmt"    //all regular imports

func GreetUsers(){      //starts with Capital letter, so exported

}

// main.go file -- main package
package main
import (
    "fmt"
    "strings"
    "booking-app/helper"    //module name (from go.mod file) / pkg name
)

func main(){
    //statements
    val = helper.GreetUsers()   //calls func from helper package.
}